EP 0040307 B1 discloses a tool for connecting insulated electrical conductor wires. This tool comprises a hollow two-shell grip, in which a striking mechanism with a spring-loaded hollow slider and a ram which can be longitudinally displaced against spring force are arranged. Arranged on the part of the ram protruding out of the front end of the grip, on the head of the ram, is a wire cutter comprising two scissor legs, one of the scissor legs being pivotably movable and having at the rear end, located in the interior of the grip, an inclined longitudinal slot, in which a pin fastened in the grip is guided. A longitudinal displacement of the ram consequently leads to a pivoting movement of the movable scissor leg. For connecting an insulated cable core into an insulation-piercing contact arranged in a terminal strip, the ram head is first placed on the terminal strip. Then the grip is manually pressed in the direction of the terminal strip, until the cable core is pressed into the contact slot of the insulation-piercing contact. The advancing force exerted on the grip brings about a relative movement between the ram and the grip and also between the scissor leg of the wire cutter and the pin fastened to the grip, which then slides into the inclined longitudinal slot and thereby pivots the movable scissor leg in such a way that the cutting edge formed on its front end cuts off the cable core.
EP 0329917 B1 also discloses a tool for connecting cable cores to insulation-piercing contacts, with a ram which is longitudinally displaceable in the tool housing and with a cutter for the cable cores, which is arranged on the ram head, the longitudinal displacement of the ram serving for triggering the cutter. Also arranged on the ram is a latching lock, which blocks the longitudinal displacement of the ram with respect to the housing, and arranged on the ram head is a sensor, which is connected to the latching lock and only releases the longitudinal displacement of the ram in the tool housing, and consequently the cutting-off operation, when there is actuation by the insulation-piercing contact or a component surrounding it.
A disadvantage of the tools known from the prior art is that satisfactory handling of the respective tool by the installation engineer is either not possible or else significantly restricted in the case of confined space conditions during the installation operation. In particular when organizing generally bifilar telecommunication and data lines on an already occupied terminal strip, difficulties frequently occur if—as is generally usual—the already occupied insulation-piercing contact elements of a terminal strip are provided with safety connectors, in order to ensure overvoltage protection, for example against lightning strikes. As a result, the space conditions at an insulation-piercing contact element to be newly occupied are restricted by the spatial extent of the surrounding safety connectors alone, which has the effect on the one hand that the line to be organized can no longer be positioned correctly at the contact slot of the insulation-piercing contact element before the actual connecting and pressing-in operation and on the other hand that the connecting tool required for the installation can no longer be brought close enough to the insulation-piercing contact element that is to be newly occupied to press the line in and cut it off. The only solution remaining for the installation engineer is often to pull off all those surrounding safety connectors that are hindering the installation operation, to make it possible in the first place for the line that is to be organized to be connected. However, on the one hand this means additional work for the installation engineer and on the other hand also does not correspond to the desirable procedure from safety aspects. Moreover, re-fitting of the safety connectors may be forgotten. Optimizing a tool for connecting cable cores to an insulation-piercing contact element when there are reduced space conditions on the terminal strip consequently represents a problem which has so far not been solved satisfactorily by the customary methods and devices that are known from the prior art.